I find water to be one of the most fascinating things God created. It can be in three different stages, vapor, frozen or liquid.

Without water we can not survive. We are made up mostly of water and we die of thirst faster than hunger. The food we eat also survives on water. Water covers most of this earth we call home. We clean with it and play in it.  We humans design  many toys so we can play in the water. Swimming in a river, or boating it is one of my favorite things to do.  Us northerners strap sharp blades called skates on our feet and dance around the frozen water we call ice. Some do this better than others and I'm not one of them. We sit on a board or a molded piece of plastic and slide down the hill on frozen water called snow.

Water not only brings us life but it can also take it away.  People and houses can be drowned and  swept away in floods.  Despite the plentiful water on this planet many people die from lack of water or get diseases from drinking dirty water.

Water is such a diverse commodity no wonder God calls himself the river of life. In Ezekiel 47:1-12 Ezekiel gets a vision of a river. In verse 2 it starts as a trickle coming out of God's house. By verse 3 it is up to his ankles. In verse 5 it is a gushing river forcing him to swim or drown.  I imagine if this river were in the natural it would be strong enough to sweep Ezekiel away along with the house, but God's ways are not our ways.

God's river gives us life. Trees for healing and growing fruit for eating are planted along its banks, verse 7. This river is teeming with fish to eat, verse 9. Where ever the river goes it turns the salty water into fresh water, except the swamps. I wonder why? In our world the rivers continually flow into the oceans and it never turns their salty water into fresh water. God's ways are not our ways.

As I walk this Christian life I imagine this river is flowing through me purging out the evil, cleansing me, nourishing me, changing my crusty salty parts into fresh clean parts. What a blessing God's river is to us.

by Joyce of ButlerPottery